196 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



crops with ca heavier jielJ. The present season proving so 

 fiscessively wet has prereute.l me doing as much work as I 

 should have done, still I am very much forwarder with my 

 work than I could have bceu with fifteen horses to keep, 

 ■whether able to work or not. I have seventy-five acres of 

 wheat looking remarkably well, some of which would cer- 

 tainly not have been sown had I not had the steam cul- 

 tivator. I have also put in my tares with the steam cul- 

 tivator; on account of tlie wet, I sowed them on the stubble 

 before breaking it up : they promise better than those 

 around me, put-in in the ordinary way. I therefore en- 

 tirely disagree with people who entertain the notion that a 

 steam cultivator is of little use in such wet seasons. I have 

 found it exactly the reverse. I have also broken up and 

 crossed my wheat stubbles, intended for roots and man- 

 golds, ami, uotv/ithstanding the wet, I have made a good 

 job of them. I usually bout this land in 27-inch ridges, 

 as T think it lies drier and sweeter for the winter ; but the 

 backwardness of this season has prevented me. My clover 

 leys I broke up just before harvest, and as usual made a 

 bastard fallow of them. From long experience on clay 

 land, I am convinced that this system is a surer mode of 

 securing a good wheat crop than leaving your clover ley 

 down until Michaelmas; it also has this advantage, the 

 work of the farm does not fall in so much at one particular 

 time. My tare land was broken up before I commenced 

 the clover leys. Upon my bean stubbles, in an ordinary 

 season, I use my steam cultivator only once, merely har- 

 rowing once before and once after the drill. Last year I 

 cultivated sixty acres of bean stubble in this way, upon 

 which I had most excellent crops of wheat. I kept an accu- 

 rate account of the cost of preparing this land by steain, 

 and found that for labour, fuel, etc., it was exactly is. 7d. 

 per acre. I have no interest whatever in extending the 

 use of the steam cultivator, but feeling obliged to Mr. Smith 

 and yourself for enabling me to cultivate my own land 

 cheaper and better, I have thrown open my farm to all 

 comers, and, in addition to many from distant counties, it 

 has afforded me pleasure to find some of my neighbours, 

 good practical farmers, following my example ; for when T 

 commenced, very few thought I was acting wisely in making 

 so great an outlay in what they termed ' an experiment.' 

 In Mr. Driug's letter, f notice he says that he finds setting 

 down to a large piece is a mistake : I think it is a mistake 

 to set down to small pieces. I have one field of 36 acres, 

 which I break up without going into the field at all. I put 

 the engine and windlass in an adjoining field, and finish 

 headlands and all, without shifting either engine or wind- 

 lass. I have another field of 00 acres, in which I have dug 

 a pond at one end, and I set the engine and windlass 

 against tlie pond, and cultivate the whole without shifting 

 or requiring a horse to fetch water. I sometimes dam up 

 drain or ditch, and obtain water in that way, for in a wet 

 season water carting is a great nuisance. I have increased 

 the length of my rgpes to enable me to do these large fields, 

 I expected it would take more power, but I don't find it 

 makes much difi'erence to my engine, which is one of Clay- 

 ton and Shuttleworth's 8-horse double cylinder. I was 

 always told, ' Don't get too much rope out, you will want so 

 much more power.' I am no engineer, and cannot go into 

 the reasons, but I find from experience that the length of 

 rope makes very little difference to my engine. As before 

 stated, I have now done with the steam cultivator upwards 

 of 2,000 acres of land, and my rope, although the worse for 

 wear, is still in working order : the other portion of the ap- 

 paratus is very little the worse for wecr. I am convinced 

 that, if people will attend to the coiling of the rope, and 

 exercise moderate care, the rope will last for years, I am 

 sure the expense of keeping the whole in repair is not 

 nearly so much as the repairs of a steam thrashing-machine. 

 J prefer the engine and windlass separate, as theyare more 

 easily moved from field to field, and along bad roads, than 

 the combined engine and windlass I had on trial. I don't 

 think much will be done in letting out steam cultivators, 

 as the expense and trouble of haulage is so much greater 

 than with thrashing machines. I speak from experience, 

 as T have let out both, but have given over letting out my 

 steafn cultivator; indeed, I hSve 90 days' work a year for it 

 on my own farm. — I am, gentlemen, yours truly, William 

 Pike, — Messrs. J. and F. Howard, Bedford." 



The Test of our still Backward Condition in Agriculture, 



and the Necessity for its Improvement. — According to our 

 best calculators, the average gross available agricultural 

 produce of Britain is barely ^.3 1.5s., or less than four rents, 

 per acre. Our arable and pastoral available acres may be 

 set down at 00 millions. Our population is :>0 millions. 

 We don't produce enough to feed them and their animals, 

 and therefore they not only consume the produce of two 

 acres per head, but are obliged to consume, at least, an- 

 other acre per head of foreign produce. Let us test this 

 calculation by .an unerring proof. 350 convicts in our City 

 of London Prison at Holloway consume weekly 2s. 3d. 

 worth of food, or by the year £!} 17s. ; clothing, per week, 

 4 J., 17s. 4d. ; paupers in our East London Union consume 

 weekly 3s. Sjd. worth of food, or by the year £9 1 Is. 9d. ; 

 clothing, per week, 3^d. So putting the pauper and the 

 convict together, each would consume ±'7 lis. -tld., or 

 more than the produce of two acres. How many acres 

 would an Alderman of the City ot London require ? It 

 really is a humiliating fact that we are unable, or rather 

 unwilling, to feed our own people ; for my own return per 

 acre, on" ray own poor farm, is more than three times the 

 average of the kingdom. Therefore, I know we could feed 

 our people if we chose to invest enough capital and intel- 

 ligence, both as landlords and tenants. 



Spirited Instances of large, but successful Investments. — A 

 friend of mine in Norfolk, who had farmed 1,200 acres of 

 poor light land for some 25 years, told me the other day 

 that he had expended ^'70,000 in oil-cake, and £5ti,000 in 

 artificial manure during his occupation. This would be 

 ifilOO per acre over the whole farm — pretty well as a 

 tenant's investment ; and we can hardly be surprised that 

 his once poor rabbit warren land has now become highly 

 fertile, profitable to the tenant, and producing a largely- 

 increased rental to the landlord. But has the landlord done 

 nothing in this matter ? Oh yes ! He has given hope and 

 security to his tenant by a long and by a renewed lease. 

 He has retained a good farmer on his estate, and sees in 

 the rising generation of that farm young men brought up to 

 a high and intelligent culture as a system. A foreigner was, 

 the other day, much astonished to see a farm-house, 

 erected by the landlord, at a cost of £4,000, for the son of 

 this farmer, who also farms largely. If the tenant has found 

 and raised capital enough to increase the live stock and 

 manure the soil, the landlord has been wise enough to pro- 

 vide the necessary accommodation and shelter for them. I 

 will give also a spirited instance of recent judicious im- 

 provement on the part of a landlord. A merchant, who had 

 realized a fortune in our colonies, and understood sheep, 

 purchased an estate ot 4,000 acres, in a county north of 

 London, for whijh he paid some £130,000 or .€140,000, 

 It was a noble property, but, like many such, neglected, un- 

 improved, and, consequently, low rented. The land, a 

 rich stiff clay, on the banks of the Thames, hut undrained, 

 and, consequently, unprofitable. Most of it was in pasture. 

 The owner is draining the whole of it four feet deep, 

 eighteen feet apart, and when I visited the property a 

 heavy stream of water was flowing from the aggregated 

 drains — all top, or rain water. The result may be easily 

 anticipated : the fine Lincoln sheep, which now thrive upon 

 it, give evidence of its altered condition, and will pay a 

 doubled rental. The same gentleman has thrown down the 

 crooked fences, trimmed those that remained, improved the 

 roads and buildings, and deepened the cultivation on the 

 arable by steam power; in other words, the rental will be 

 i'8,000 per annum instead of £4,000. I'he whole drainage 

 will be completed in three years, at an expense of i'30,000, 

 or something over £7 per acre : probably not less than 

 £50,0ti0 will be the total investment in improvements. 

 The increase of roots and winter food by this operation ig 

 already surprising. There is nothing in our history more 

 contemptible in the eyes of a commercial man than the 

 frequent and futile attempts of our governors and legis- 

 lators to fix the value of commodities, whether by bounties 

 or protection. Such attempts have invariably failed, as will 

 be seen by the fluctuatmg prices and quantities of corn ex- 

 ported and imported, of which I annex tables : 



Import and Export of Foreign Wheal and Flour.— 

 Statement of the Total Quantities of Wheat and Wheat 

 Flour Imported into and Exported from Great Britain 

 in each Year, from 1097 to 1846 ;— 



